Palin last week listed the 3rd Congressional District as one that should be held by Republicans based on the fact she and GOP presidential standard-bearer John McCain carried it in 2008, Palin said on her blog.

Palin’s telling conservatives “to ‘reload,’ and ‘targeting’ the congressman and placing him within her ‘cross hairs’ was a most unfortunate choice of words, given the political environment right now,” Carleton said in a statement.

“Of course Salazar wants me to repudiate Sarah Palin,” he said in an e-mail. “My guess is he’s starting to understand that his seat is not only vulnerable, but gone.”

Tipton, a state representative from Cortez, has no plan to repudiate Palin’s comments, his campaign said in a statement echoing McConnell.

Salazar’s campaign “is starting to realize the writing on the wall that this is going to be a contested race,” the statement said. “The people from the 3rd are done with Salazar’s out-of-touch policies and his government-run mandates, such as ObamaCare.”